The Turkish Labour Code No. 4857 defines employees who have completed the age of 15 but have not completed the age of 18 as “young workers” and employees who are over the age of 14, under the age of 15 and who have completed compulsory primary education as “child workers”.
According to the Turkish Labour Law, the work that children and young workers can do is limited by the relevant regulations and with counting method. The children and young workers can only be employed in the defined jobs and professions.
However, vocational training activities are excluded from this limitation. Works in the form of candidate apprenticeship, apprenticeship, internship, and practical training in enterprises to be carried out in the context of vocational education are not subject to the restrictions regarding child and young workers, which are the subject the Turkish Labour Code.
Namely, within the scope of the Vocational Education Law No. 3308, professional young workers over the age of 16 who graduated from vocational and technical education schools and institutions, can be employed in jobs appropriate to their expertise and profession, provided that their health, safety and morality are fully secured. Given to students of vocational and technical education schools and institutions, the jobs and places to be included or removed from the field of application of vocational training, internship and apprenticeship training in the enterprise are subjected to be determined by the Ministry of National Education of Republic of Turkey.
The first thing to consider when determining whether children and young workers will be employed in a job is to determined whether this job is within the scope of the Vocational Education Law No. 3308. If there it not a job within the scope of vocational training of the Law No. 3308, it is checked whether the worker is among the jobs listed in the regulation issued in accordance with the Labor Law No. 4857, depending on his/her qualifications. It is possible to employ the workers in the jobs in the mentioned lists according to their qualifications.
However, if the job is already within the scope of vocational training, then the child student can be employed in jobs appropriate to their specialization and profession, regardless of restrictions of the Turkish Labour Law, provided that the health, safety and morality of the worker are fully secured while working, whether the job is enlisted in the mentioned lists or not.
